Bonaire site recommendations for my first and last trip

[tmann]

Something special for frogfish!
If you like giant strides ledonias leap is a beautiful reef that is somewhat secretive because it's marked with a ying yang painted in the road instead of a yellow rock, it's right before Karpata so you have to walk back which isn't bad because it's a one way. It's not a huge jump maybe 5 or 6 feet to the water but there is no exit till Karpata. East coast for big turtles and Rays and if you're lucky like I was Youl see a nice big nurse shark! Night dive and help feed the tarpon pretty much anywhere!

 

[DiverVince]

CS..I do look forward to reading your trip report when you return. As far as suggesting dive sites I think the aforementioned suggestions are indeed good ones to give you a taste (and that's all you will receive in a short week) of what Bonaire has to offer. Me? I've spent some 40 years traveling all over the Carib diving and when all is said and done Bonaire is my favorite for a multitude of reasons.
Personally I don't think you can really judge what Bonaire has to offer in a short week, sea conditions change ALL the time. One day a certain site can be mediocre and on other days it can be sheer outstanding. Same with marine life. Big animals? If you're looking for heart pounding action being surrounded by a school of hammerheads, you will certainly not find this diving the mid western coast of the island although you may have a better chance to see larger stuff diving Monk's Haven off the western cost of Klein. Enjoy your trip, you just may be pleasantly surprised at what you see.

 

[diversteve]

Not 30 but ones not to miss.

North side
Rappel by boat - really hard to do by shore since the site name describes the drop to the water.
Cliff - if you start at Habitat at night you'll see Tarpon feeding in Habitat's overhead lights south of the dive dock. Swim north to one of few vertical walls in that area - Cliff actually starts north of Habitat's Dive dock and extends up to (or past) Dive Friends on the other end.
Bari Reef - nothing large - maybe some squid. But it's the site with the highest # of counted species in the Caribbean. Good 2nd dive since some of it is really shallow. Sometimes heading over to Klein from that area there's dolphins spotted/snorkeled with.
1000Steps
Karpata

Klein Bonaire
Forest off Klein (boat) A forest of Black Coral. Saw a nurse shark there once also IIRC.
Jerry's Reef (sometimes called Sponges) - Turtles, Stingrays, occasional Eagle Rays We snorkeled toward the island from the mooring and found lots of sleeping turtles in maybe 8-10'.

South Side
Invisibles - should see garden eels around 100'
Alice in Wonderland - just a nice dive.
Angel City - double reef - if a hurricane hasn't removed it there's a huge blue sponge between the reefs.
Salt Pier - just interesting. watch near the deeper pilings for eagle rays.
Hilma Hooker - the signature wreck.
Vista Blue - shore drift dive some afternoons. Current can be ripping. Maybe one of the best dives there.

For bigger stuff go out with these guys to the East Side. Diving Bonaire on the wildside, Dive bonaire eastcoast and see the big 5.

 

[Jersey]

Thanks for clarifying what you are looking for. Salt Pier can be just plain UGLY to see all the refuse, however lots of critters live in it, then 'big stuff' comes looking for it. No guarantee, but I've found schooling jacks (horse eye and bar), been engulfed by yellow stripe grunts, found big tarpon and barracuda looking for lunch and seen big Cubera snapper lurking in the distance using the shadows of the piers playing hide and seek. The Wild Side - could be turtles, tarpon, squadrons of eagle rays cruising by. The Hooker often attracts the bigger stuff, friends have also had dolphins escort them around. Dive it from boat or shore - early morning is best.

On Klein, Joanns Sunchi next to the coral restoration work Buddy Dive is doing seems to attract turtles. Southwest Corner has tricky currents that can bring in bigger stuff when its diveable. I also enjoy diving up in the soft coral near the mooring at the end of a dive. Almost no one ventures in and it's a great nursery for stuff. Never know what oddities are about.

Nukove and Taylor Made if you can find them up North.

As to sharks, not many. I've seen 3 - 1 Caribbean Reef and 2 Nurse.

I try to enjoy each location and site for what it offers. In the fresh water quarry that means cold water and brown fish, in NJ flounder, sea bass and lobster for the taking (in season of course), on St. Thomas (where I've been working since July) it's a lot of shallow sites and swim throughs when they have new/inexperienced divers onboard and deeper advanced sites with larger 'things' (shark, tuna, jacks, turtles) when it's a locals boat. I've done Calf site 5 times, max depth 39 feet, not my ideal site, but OK, I'm diving! On Bonaire it's shallow sites, long bottom time and pretty fish. I love to watch fish behavior, so Bonaire affords perfect opportunity to camp out on a spot for 20 minutes and see what happens.

 

[lmorin]

Some of our most enjoyable Bonaire dives have resulted from unpredictable sightings of very large numbers (i.e., thousands) of schooling bigeye scad and boga. Neither fish species is large, of course, but the schools themselves are positively wonderful to watch and interact with. If you are lucky, you will become immersed in such a school and disappear from the sight of your fellow divers. I have photos of my wife being consumed by a school of bigeye scad until there is nothing of her visible but 6" of blue fin. Awesome!

 

[LowDrag]

I am going to Bonaire for the first and last time in May 2015 too, but 19th to 26th. Like CS, somehow Bonaire never appealed to me but in my case, I know at least the reason to some extent. Being a liveaboard cruise lover, the idea of a week or more of land based diving is not top on my list and having been to a few places where there was no other option eg Cozumel, Malta & Gozo etc, I disliked the wasted time and hassle that goes with land based diving. But with Bonaire in particular, another reason is an extremely ( and I mean extremely) annoying UK based agent named Bonaire Fun Travel who badgered me so often with unsolicited e-mail with patronising lectures on why I should cancel my booked trip and go to Bonaire instead that he put me right off the destination.

I guess I'll know in May but I cannot imagine Bonaire being better than Raja Ampat that I am going next week or Bali / Wakatobi that comes after the Bonaire trip. Also, I'll be going to Bonaire immediately after a liveaboard cruise of the Socorro islands on board the Rocio del Mar and although it is totally different kind of diving, I suspect that I know memories of which part of the trip would excite me more when I return home.

Wow!!! It must really suck to "have" to do a shore dive. I feel so sad that you have to be subjected to that after just having gone to Raja Ampat or Wakatobi. So sad...

 

[drrich2]

In some ways Bonaire offers some of the advantages of a live-aboard and a land-based op. You can handily do 4 shore dives/day. Especially if you're at a resort with a good house reef, you can do a night dive. Earlier this year I went solo and spent a week during which I got in 28 dives. That compares favorably with what I read about live-aboards. I'd still love to do a live-aboard someday; I'd like to see that happen in 2015.

But you can roam the island if you want to. Eat in different places, if you want to. Choose between boat or shore diving.

A dive destination should be enjoyed for what it is, not what it is not. If you go determined that Cozumel, or Raja Ampat, or Saba, or wherever is the end all be all of how diving should be, then most other places will fall short.

But if you want to dive 4 or 5 times/day, any time of day or night you want, how you want, solo if you want & nobody telling you that you can't, picking your own sites, well, there is something to be said for that.

Conversely, someone who's sold on 'the Bonaire Way' could probably go around dissing other dive destinations because most are lacking in some or all of those respects. But is that the way to richly enjoy an exotic vacation?

Richard.

P.S.: I still reserve the right to diss cold water destinations. Just say'n...

 

[dolesorchard]

I think most of the northern sites are over rated. Almost anything south of the salt pier is good, the further south the better. If you get a calm day or a west wind, the east side can be spectacular. We have done several shore dives there with VIP Divers and can highly recommend it. Something Special and Tolo are our favorite of the more northern sites.

 

[hroark2112]

If you want a fun dive with lots to see, do the Willemstoren Lighthouse dive. If you can...it's not always easily accessible.

I love NC diving, but there is so much fun to be had in the water in Bonaire. If you can't have fun diving in Bonaire, you're trying too hard NOT to have fun!!

 

[RTee]

Without out a doubt, the best dive I did while on Bonaire was a light drift dive. Jump into the water at LaDania's Leap and drift dive to Karpata. There's info somewhere online that explains exactly where LaDania's Leap is located and the underwater nav directions to get you to come up at the correct location at Karpata.. I absolutely loved the dive. Great topography, a very healthy pristine reef, wall dive, lots of larger sea life when I did it. It was great! Obviously the sealife moves, but we saw lots of turtles, eels and larger fish compared to the rest of the week while diving in Bonaire.

I don't agree with the person that mentioned on the below link that it should only be attempted with a guide. Maybe hire a guide if you're a very inexperienced diver, otherwise it's doable. Found the link which has lots of good info and listed it below. Look for the yin-yang marking in the middle of the road. That is where you get out and walk to the water. The leap wasn't that bad. My wife did it when she had only a handful of ocean dives under her belt and later said "no big deal". She liked giant striding better than wading through surf on foot. Very important, be at the correct depth and look for the anchor which is your landmark for turning towards shore at about a 45 degree relative angle. It's a BIG anchor and shouldn't be missed if your at the correct depth and looking for it.

Scuba Shore Diving Site Page for: La Dianas Leap of Bonaire North, ABC Islands

The Karpata anchor, at least what it looks like in Feb 2012. +1 for that lazy drift dive to Karpata. Ideally, you drop all your equipment by the entry point (you will have to carry it from the road) and then drive your vehicle to Karpata where there is parking space and backtrack on foot to the entry point. Entry is like Oil Slick...except you do not have a ladder to get back out.

Sinbad, if you like seeing big creature I would suggest you visit Bonaire East Coast Diving FB page. Plenty of turtles (in fact I think there is a turtle conservation area there), tarpons (you will also see them at Salt Pier and night diving out of Windsock or Something Special), moray eels and eagle rays. They have also seen nurse sharks, hammerhead and manta. I used them in 2012 and intend to dive again with them this upcoming February.

Location of Something Special...it is at the upper end of the street Kaya JNE Craane (at the bend of the road just where it goes parallel to the water, turn right and find a place where you will not be blocking driveways including the entrance to the condo/apartment building completely at the end. The site itself seems to be located in front of that apartment building or slightly passed it going northwest. You will literally have to swim under the sailboats that are moored on the flat (sand) until you reach the drop off and then follow the drop off to the northwest. I prefer to dive that site at night (early evening/early morning) as there is less traffic and better chance to get a parking spot nearby. Night dives (Windsock and Something Special) ...don't be surprised to be joined by tarpons which will use your diving light beams to spot their preys and whizz by ( few feet to only inches from you).